Of Koopatrols, Slimes, and Illagers
Morton's POV:
Morton kept going through the grassland. He had traveled for three days and three nights, rarely taking a rest even at night, and had hunted or found a little pond for sustenance or drink when necessary. It was now the morning of the fourth day since the night of the zombies, and since he'd kept his distance from the green humanoids and anything else that looked suspicious; for example, he saw one of those leafy, mottled, four-legged things last night, just like the one that had exploded and killed the zombies but also nearly killed him. He had also seen floating eyeballs in the distance, darting every which way. Morton didn't make any sense of it, but he just steered clear. Morton knew his world was ginormous, and even Sr. barely knew anything about it.
Morton had been doing a lot of thinking lately, with all the free time he'd been given as he walked mile after mile, and his main center of thought had been his dream. Or was it a vision? Foresight? Morton had decided that the vision had been the work of some magic. All of the strange things that happened in it, from the marble statues to the man in black to the two armies fighting in a town, all being unrelated to events in his life, had convinced him that it had to be the work of something, or someone, and not just his mind. But who, or what, sent him the dream? The only person he knew, and thus knew him, was Sr.
Claudie probably didn't send him the dream, unless she was using some spirit powers or something, and Kevin probably hadn't either…was it that man in black, who called him a "Koopaling?" And if so, how did the dream get to him from the man?
Morton knew of magic only because of Sr.'s tales of magikoopas, but he had never dabbled in the art and had no clue on how it worked, and his argument with Sr. about the yellow gem, the day before their home was destroyed by lava and he and Sr. were separated due to the Dragonfly, had severely deterred him from it. He didn't even know where he'd start if he were to try.
Speaking of the yellow gem, Morton had continued to fidget with it to help distract him from his maddening thoughts, anxieties, and circumstances, which especially came apparent during the night. It reminded him of arguing with Sr., though, and it made him feel guilty.
It's my fault that I didn't go fast enough, Morton ridiculed himself, and that flying green thing caught up to me, and Sr. had to create a diversion. He's SURELY dead now, his body burned by that green thing, and his spirit's thinking "Curse you, Morton! You killed me! I'll make your life so horrible, you'll succumb to terrifying creatures so you can join me and lecture you!"
Those were Morton's exact thoughts that morning, and they made him put the yellow gem away out of anger. He still wanted a fidget, though, so he reached back into his shell and pulled out the black substance he obtained by killing the shadow creature on his first night alone. The bone shards from the zombies were stuck in it, so he plucked them out, put them back in his shell, and finally kept moving.
As Morton pushed the slimy stuff around in his cupped hands like Silly Putty, he thought aloud to no one in particular.
"WHAT ARE YOU, EXACTLY?" Morton asked it. "ARE YOU…SHADOW GUTS? OR MAYBE…UHM…WELL, WHAT BE YOUR PURPOSE? EVERYTHING IN THIS WORLD MAKES SOMETHIN' ELSE.'" Morton had come to learn that very quickly, and most things he didn't need Sr.'s help coming up with. Grass? Bits of clothing, fuel for fires, bandaging up wounds. Sand? You could get a box or bag of it and suffocate prey. Cactus? Food, spiky weapons and armor, and even sentries, in a way. Tumbleweeds? Sticks (and now, yellow gems?), which were used for fires or building shacks or maybe even a slingshot or two, if there were some rocks around. In Morton's opinion, there was always a use for something. Else, it wouldn't need to exist.
"SO WHAT DO YOU MAKE, SHADOW GUTS?" Morton questioned it. "DO YOU HAVE MAGICAL PROPERTIES? THAT WOULD BE COOL. I DON'T THINK YOU JUST TOY IF YOU COME FROM SHADOW MONSTERS, MUST BE PRETTY GOOD THING!"
The substance just bubbled and swirled in Morton's hands. Once again, for a second he thought he saw something like a face inside, but before he could get a closer look at what he thought he saw the shape had just swirled into some nonsensical pattern.
Finally, Morton came across something of notice. It was a road—or, more so, a beaten grass path the width and length of a road. It just began out of nowhere, right in front of Morton, and Morton's gaze followed the path over three small hills, around an oak tree, through a clump of grass, and then into a thicket of evergreen trees. Morton didn't know that there were more kinds of trees than oak ones and dead ones, so he was surprised to see the towering green giants, pines fluffed out to be larger than they really were; even though there were many on the trees, pines still completely covered the podzol ground.
Morton tentatively tapped his foot on the road worried it was a trap or something like that. Nothing happened, though; it was just a simple road. Taking a deep breath, Morton began to walk along the path. When Morton was a kid and still thought that he and Sr. would go on great adventures together beyond the mesa—not saying he didn't think it would happen still—but Morton was 100% sure of it back then, and back then Sr. had said that if he was lost and looking for civilization, find and follow a river, or better yet, a road. He would eventually come across some form of civilization if he followed either one unless he was really unlucky and there was nothing along the river, or the road went nowhere.
Then again, though, rivers had water and fish and led to oceans or waterfalls or lakes, so they had a reason for being there. Roads were artificial, though, so they HAD to have built for something; and hopefully for Morton, it was civilization.
The time had almost reached sunhigh when Morton came to the forest. He'd seen nothing unusual to him the whole time, and because of that he was feeling quite relaxed. He'd put the black substance back into his shell, pushing it far back so the yellow gem and bone shards sat on top of it and were easier to reach.
"WELP, GUESS I SHOULD GO IN," Morton said aloud, to everyone—to no one—as he stood in front of the thicket, putting his hands on his hips. The path snaked in between the evergreens before disappearing around a bend, and it, like the ground, was dappled with light and shadow from the trees above, and, of course, pines. Lots and lots of them!
Taking another deep breath, he tightened his grass shirt, made sure his knife was securely tucked away in his pocket, and then he marched into the thicket.
The birds greeted Morton with a chorus of tweets, but they were scared off as his great form crashed through the undergrowth without much thought, trying to follow the path as much as he could. He caught some burrs in between his scales in the process, though, so after picking them out and crushing them in his claws to vent his annoyance he slowed down, just to make sure he wouldn't get snagged by some other plant. It was slow going after that, and he hadn't even gotten halfway through the thicket when dusk fell.
Quickly Morton threw together a fire that, as always, was surrounded by rocks; he made it just off the road. He used his knife as a spit once again to roast two squirrels he'd caught with the same trick he used to catch the rabbits: falling on them with his shell spikes down, killing them. After a while, though, his arm got tired of rotating the spit and he needed a drink, so he struck two sturdy sticks into the ground on either side of the fire, then used a third stick to connect the two over the fire, before finally skewering the two partly-roasted squirrels with the third stick and leaving them to cook over the fire. Next, he used his knife that was now not holding two squirrels and, after scrubbing it free of blood in a bush, he got some dirt and grass together to make the same cups he had made way back at the lake he'd found outside of the Warp Pipe.
Fortune must've been on his side around then because when Morton couldn't find a water source anywhere nearby, he noticed a mass of rainclouds rolling in, and before long water was pouring down on him and the thicket; the whole sky had turned a light gray. Morton didn't think he would ever see this much rain in his whole life, but now he had. It felt cold and relaxing, and he pranced about, splashing in puddles and tasting the rain with his tongue. He set up the cups he'd made to collect water and he made more cups to fill with water, too. He even caught a rabbit as he ran through the thicket, enjoying the wetness, but soon he had a headache, and his vision was getting a little blurry and pale.
"UH OH," Morton exclaimed. This had happened several times on his travels after the zombies, especially at night, and he had begun to see outlines of strange forms materializing in the distance when this had happened. It was like his first night all alone all over again, but now it was wet and he was in a forest.
Morton raced back to his campsite, only to find his fire to be extinguished, with the remaining embers smoking. The spit he'd constructed had been broken by the harshening rain, and his cups were overflowing and were sinking into the mud. The squirrels he'd been roasting were mostly gone, now, too—there was still a bit of one in his sight. And it was inside a slime.
Morton came to a halt, which wasn't hard too since the ground was getting very muddy and sticky. He fixed his gaze on the small…creature?...before him. It had no face and was about as big as his spit above the fire had been, with a deep-blue, translucent body like Jell-O, if clearer. The rain made the top of the creature bubble and swirl, and little glops of blue gel ran down its sides, little droplets stuck to it like a balloon. The slime was shaped like a half-sphere, and inside it, Morton could see the remains of one of the squirrels slowly disintegrating and being absorbed within the slime. The slime also had a heady, acidic aroma that stung his sense of smell.
SCHNK. Morton drew his knife.
The slime slowly rotated to face him, even though it didn't have eyes or any seeable means of perception. Morton didn't know how the heck the thing worked, but he assumed it must be some kind of magical elemental of sorts.
The blue slime wriggled a bit, little bubbles floating inside of it from the rain. It suddenly expanded sideways, then contracted in a snap with a SPWCH sound of sorts. It rocketed up about TWELVE FEET into the air before coming down in an arc toward Morton. Morton brought his knife upwards, clenched his teeth, closed his eyes, and looked away, accidentally slashing the slime in half. The slime exploded into several balls of gel that rained down around Morton and landed in the mud.
Morton looked at the ground. Mud was pooling around the gel globs, so he snatched them up and put them in his shell. They felt both sticky and bouncy, which made no sense to him, but he dismissed it because a smaller, lime-green slime had just bounced into view. Morton ran forward and plunged the knife into the middle of the slime. The slime bubbled and leaped backward, pulling Morton forward. His knife flew from his hands and stuck itself inside the slime. He would've fallen down if the mud hadn't trapped his feet. He leaned forward awkwardly instead, then rightened himself. He yanked his feet from the mud and ran after the green slime.
It wasn't much use. The slime was just too fast! It kept bounding forward three feet at a time each time Morton took a step. Morton began to slow down, losing hope, but then he realized something. The blue slime had foolishly tried to assault him, but this green slime was trying to flee—at least, right now. Would it attack him if he stopped pursuing it?
Morton stopped, taking several deep breaths with his hands on his hips. His brown scales were even browner from the dirt and mud, and the rain that showered him glistened in an eerie light. He heard squelching in the distance and looked up to see the green slime slowly hopping toward him. His knife had been absorbed into its center, and Morton saw minuscule chunks floating off of it and disappearing within the gelatinous form.
"HOW IS IT EATING MY KNIFE?" Morton asked aloud. He looked around to see the same white eyes as before blinking in the darkness, and the edges of his vision were warping and turning. He shook his head as pain and whispers filled him, and when he opened his eyes he saw something behind the slime. It was a large shadow monster, a Nightmare Creature, with insect-like legs that dragged along a furry, tick-like black body with two transparent pinpoints for eyes on a tiny head.
"WHAT IS THAT THING?" Morton screamed instead of thinking, for those strange whispers had filled his mind instead of clear thought. The horror crawled forward, maneuvering past the green slime that paid no attention to it. It was as if the slime couldn't see the horror and the horror couldn't see the slime. They only saw Morton, and they saw him as prey.
Morton reached into his grass shirt to pull out his knife, but then he remembered that the knife was currently being disgusted by the slime. He wanted to flee now, but he couldn't think straight with his decaying sanity. He shook his head again letting out a whimper of agony.
From the shadows, another tick-like monster came forth, and a strange shriek alerted Morton to one of those chair-legged shadow monsters advancing behind him. Morton dropped to the ground and hid in his shell, his only protection at this point. He began to spin in it, but the muck slowed him down. His spinning stirred up the ground and soon dirt and rainwater were spraying outwards around him, striking the Nightmare Creatures and green slime. He heard a few confused grunts from the shadow monsters, and he peeked out of his head-hole to see their reaction: attack.
The slime leaped at him covering up his head-hole. Morton hissed and spun as fast as he could, and the slime was soon flung off. Then he saw the tick-like monster rearing up, and its bottom half broke open to reveal it was all a giant jaw. The beast roared the loudest roar Morton had ever heard, and then it smashed down on him. He was shoved into the ground, and mud and water began to flood into his shell-holes, especially his head-hole, the largest one. Morton sputtered and coughed as he drowned, and a powerful force bit down on one of his shell spikes.
Then Morton heard them. Heavy footsteps of iron boots vibrated the ground, and Morton heard yelling, and…voices! Voices he understood, in the Koopa Commontongue! His language! Whatever they were, he assumed they must be fellow Koopas. An echoing howl sounded through the thicket and Morton was pulled from the muck with a grunt.
He stood up and ran right into a Koopa Troopa with an iron chestplate, leggings, boots, and a steel helmet with a spike on top and small eyehole slits, along with a large metal plate that covered the stereotypical large nose and beak of the Koopa Troopas. He had a mouthguard and gloves of sorts made of dark cloth and chainmail and his usually smooth, spikeless shell had a cover made of some deep gray stone, and metal spikes that sprouted up from the shell-cover. He held an iron longsword in one hand, and the other hand he had used to pull Morton up. Finally, he had a leather belt with several glowing glass bottles filled with colorful liquids with purple shimmers, along with a large white raid horn with a black strap and a blue line around the rim.
Morton blinked the rain and dirt from his eyes and hit his big eyebrows free of gunk too. He looked around himself with gritted teeth and saw that five more metal-clad Koopa Troopas like the one before him were fighting the Nightmare Creatures and the green slime with swords and spears. All of it confused Morton, and as he examined the Koopa that was examining him back, his mind surged with the realization that he was standing in front of one of the Koopa knights from Sr.'s tales!
"HELLO I AM MORTON KOOPA JR. WHAT IS YOUR NAME I AM VERY PLEASED TO MEET YOU!" he grabbed the Koopa's free hand and shook it.
"Simmer down, simmer down, Koopa kid!" said the Koopa in a kind-but-serious tone. "Or are you even a Koopa?"
Morton glanced at his brown scales, white head, and almost black shell…he remembered what Sr. had said about outside civilizations treating Sr., and presumably Morton, like a twisted freak because of their voice and appearance.
"I'M A KOOPA," Morton mumbled, "OF SOME KIND."
The Koopa squinted. "The name's Brad. Listen, bud, we don't have da time to chat. We gotta go! There are too many Nightmare Creatures, and our sanity is threateningly low. Take these," and he pushed three cooked mushroom caps with a deep green hue and tiny white dots into Morton's hand. "Eat," he said.
Morton wolfed down the caps in an instant. They tasted like salty cauliflower. "SANITY? IS THAT WHY MY VISION HAS RED LINES AND IS WHITE LIKE BONE AND I SEE EYES AND HEAR WHISPERS AND THE SHADOW MONSTERS ATTACK?" he said in one long run-on sentence.
"Do you not know?" asked Brad.
"I'VE LIVED IN ON A MESA PLATEAU MY WHOLE LIFE, AND JUST DAYS AGO I CAME INTO A GRASSLAND AND THEN HERE, SR.'S ONLY TAUGHT ME WHAT HE KNOWS."
"Are you two ever up at night, or in dark places?"
"NAH. TOO COLD."
"Near disturbing monsters, eating spoiled food…?"
"NOT USUALLY WITH THE FOOD. AND IF YOU CALL "ANGRY TUMBLERS" AND BIG BLACK SCORPIONS "DISTURBING MONSTERS"..."
Brad sighed before hearing a loud squelch. He grabbed Morton's wrist and spun to face a purple slime, slightly larger than the size of the blue ones. It pressed itself down before springing towards Brad. Brad sliced it midair with his longsword, and the purple slime fell to the ground. Brad stabbed it several times over, growling, until it was just a pancake of purple gel.
Morton picked up the gel and put it in his shell, feeling excited. He also grabbed his knife, as he spotted it in the remains of the green slime. It was good to have it back.
"THAT WAS MARVELOUS!" he exclaimed, jumping up and down and almost slipping. "SHOW ME AGAIN! BETTER YET TRAIN ME! PLEASE, I BEG OF—"
"Shush, peasant!" hissed Brad, and he ran, pulling Morton along. "Sorry to be rude, but we've gotta go!"
Morton looked behind him to see four of the Koopa knights following suit. The fifth one was fighting a trio of blue slimes. The slimes began to overwhelm him, and he screamed in pain as they slipped through his armor and began to digest him alive with their acidic forms. Another tick-like Nightmare Creature came from the shadows and overwhelmed the Koopa as well, leading him to a quick death—which, in this case, and was usually always the case, was good. The Koopatrols were unfazed, as if this happened all the time. As if they were dispensable, unrespected pawns in a big game of war—which they were. Morton was thoroughly disturbed, though, and he looked away, holding back his barf.
The Nightmare Creature suddenly faded away. The green caps had regained his sanity, and now the Nightmares couldn't target him and he couldn't target them. But the other Koopas were still at the mercy of the Nightmares, which kept coming.
"DO YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING?" Morton asked one of the knights behind him and Brad as they slashed their iron sword at seemingly nothing.
The knights all turned to him, studying the strange sight, then all said, "Not really!"
Morton had thousands of questions for them but only one seems important enough to distract them for the time being.
"WHY ARE YOU ALL OUT HERE?" he asked them with knitted eyebrows.
"We're Koopatrols," said a different Koopa, "We patrol areas. In this case, this road," he gestured to the path that they were running along. "We are soldiers of King Bowser Koopa's Koopa Troop."
"WHO'S KING BOWSER KOOPA?" Morton queried.
The Koopatrols exchanged knowing looks as they ran; they were keeping many a secret from him, and he could tell.
"You'll get to know him very well if you're a Koopaling," Brad replied.
"BRAD!" snapped the Koopatrol who had been fighting the Nightmare Creature. He had killed it, and thus his sanity had been regained (the other Koopatrols were also eating cooked green caps of their own as they went, so they were all cured of insanity and the Nightmares had disappeared). "Don't get his hopes up!"
"But he has to be one of them! We're running out of time before the Midsummer Carnival to find all seven, like The Prophecy says, anyway! If it's true, this is surely one of them."
"SHUT UP!" roared the Koopatrol.
"Well, he's got to learn eventually," said Brad. He was going to say more, but then a blue slime landed on his helmet. The spike pierced the slime, and it bubbled before sliding down the side of the helmet toward Brad's shell. Unbalanced and distorted, Brad stopped and leaned against a tree, thrusting his longsword behind him and splitting the slime in two; the two halves fell off and disintegrated until they were just two gel globs, which Morton picked up and put in his shell.
"Where did that come from?" asked the Koopatrol that had told him about being part of the Koopa Troop and their patrolling duties.
"A tree?" suggested Brad, shaking his head clear of the dizziness.
A green slime landed in between two evergreens and advanced on the Koopatrol patrol. The Koopatrols finished it off in seconds, but then two more fell down and attacked. A blue slime and purple slime both fell down before the two green slimes were dispatched, and then another green joined as well.
"What the freak is this?" yelled one of the Koopatrols who hadn't spoken yet. The squad pulled out round-shields and banded them to their arms, since they hadn't before for some reason, and began dueling the slimes.
Morton came out from under the tree, clutching his knife, and looked up with a feeling of confusion and pure amazement. Slimes of green, blue, purple, and even pink colors rained from the sky, along with inanimate blobs of the same gel as the slimes. The slime balls splatted everywhere, but some of the slimes landed in trees and then hopped down, or just fell to the ground and bounced. Well, most of them. Some just went SPLAT!
"It's a darned slime rain!" shouted Brad as all of the slimes turned to them and slowly began to hop forward.
"And in summer, nonetheless! A little late for spring, morons!" spat the Koopatrol who had been yelling; the one who fought off the Nightmare Creature.
"SLIME RAIN? WHAT'S YOUR NAME, ANYWAYS?" Morton asked.
"AnyWAY," he said, "no s." "S" made no sense to Morton, for he didn't know numbers or letters or how to read or write. "But I'm Trevor. Slime rains are when slime rains from the sky. A weird event, probably some magic involved. I don't know, they're just very rare outside of spring!"
Morton nodded even though it didn't make sense and stabbed a green slime to pieces.
Though they fought well, the slimes just kept coming, and not just in the forest—all over the lands. More and more fell as adventurers, soldiers, creatures and others fought off the slimes that landed in their proximity, far away from the Koopatrols. Hundreds of slimes had been slain across the time of the event, but most weren't by the Koopatrols and Morton. The trees mainly blocked the slimes that fell down on them, and that was the only reason they were surviving.
"Yaaah!" said Brad as he barreled down a squad of slimes in his shell. He got out, dodged a purple slime, slashed it dead, and then jumped up and plunged his longsword through a blue slime and into the ground.
"THAT WAS COOL!" Morton called, trying to compliment him even while in the deadly situation. He would love to be taught how to do that someday, but he didn't dare ask right now.
"Thanks?" Brad replied.
A giant shadow fell over the group, and Morton emerged from under one of the evergreens, the remains of a green slime he'd just barely killed dripping from his knife (he'd only killed five green slimes and one blue one with Trevor's help the whole time, mostly with his shell), and looked up to see the monstrosity.
A ginormous blue slime, twenty feet tall and thirty feet across, seeped through the clouds and came down towards the Koopatrols. It glowed in the little light that broke through the storm clouds, a small rainbow shining off the transparent, gelatinous beast's body that reflected things like a diamond. It wore a golden crown socketed with large rubies that somehow balanced itself on top of the blue slime and didn't get absorbed and dissolved. It landed on one of the evergreen trees with a resounding CRACK, and the tree bent over, and its trunk snapped. It collapsed, wood, rainwater, and pines flying everywhere as it hit the ground.
Morton held back his scream, instead emitting a little squeak. He thought the Dragonfly would be the scariest monster he'd ever see in his life, and even if it may be a little more unsettling to look at and had fire powers, the slime's pure superior size and brilliant crown was what shook Morton off more.
He prayed the Koopatrols hadn't all been under that tree, but he knew two of them had, because some of one was poking out under the fallen tree, and another was scrambling to get up and flee. He didn't know where Brad, Trevor, and the third one traveling in the group that he hadn't caught the name of were, but a deep gurgling took his mind off that and centered it on the King Slime.
The King Slime slithered forward like a slug, and like a slug, leaving behind a thin trail of slime. The King Slime hung some of its gel down off the tree, waiting for it to touch the ground, and once it did, in one great motion it came off the tree and landed on the ground. Its body jiggled from the impact, but once the crown righted itself the King Slime advanced.
The still-alive Koopatrol who had been trying to get up had reached a bush that was halfway between the bush Morton had hopped into and the King Slime itself. Upon seeing the King Slime move, Morton and the Koopatrol had got into their shells and were now watching the King Slime from their head-holes. The slimes that still kept raining down had luckily not noticed Morton or the Koopatrol, but the more that fell, the closer they got to being exposed.
The King Slime paused and reached several slimy appendages out of itself, which looked like strings of a spider's web. They felt around, and one snaked under the tree and yanked the crushed Koopatrol out. Morton cringed when he saw the Koopatrol's broken body, and even more so as the appendage retracted back into the King Slime, pulling the Koopatrol along. Morton then watched as the Koopatrol, who was in a splayed-out position and was barely a single piece anymore, slowly floated through the King Slime's insides, causing bits of him to flake off, like a cracker in a glass of water, and break up even more until they were gel—now part of the King Slime too. He only disintegrated so fast due to all of his open cuts and wounds, though.
The King Slime jumped upwards many feet in an arc before landing back down again, taking three more trees with it—it was coming in Morton's direction. Seeing this, Morton slowly stuck his feet and arms out of his shell like a traditional turtle and began to walk backward, trying to gain distance between himself and the monster. The King Slime repeated the process it had before to get off the tree, and once again it searched for food with its little appendages. This time, it grabbed two squirrels, and then from midair snatched a little bird. The animals suffocated as they were pulled into the King Slime, and Morton was glad to see that they died that way, for they wouldn't die as they were slowly broken apart, which would be much more painful.
The King Slime jumped forward again, taking down just one tree this time. It quickly hopped down to the ground this time, though, and began to pull itself along towards a bush. In fact, the one with the Koopatrol.
Sensing danger, the Koopatrol got up and bolted, running faster than the King Slime's appendages. The King Slime expressed its anger by sending a wave of air bubbles through itself before it took a leap. It landed right behind the Koopatrol and it reached out a glop of gel. The glop wrapped itself around the Koopatrol and pulled him in. The Koopatrol tried to struggle, but after a few seconds, over half of him had been sucked in, which included his belt that his sword hung from, and he closed his eyes and let himself be dragged in.
Morton saw this and fully got out of his shell, breaking into a sprint. He knew that if the King Slime spotted him, he'd be slowly decomposed, and he obviously didn't want that, but he knew if he stayed, he'd still meet the same fate. The mud and puddles, which were waning with the regular rain, slowed him down, and spinning away in his shell would bring the same problems, and he would also not really see any obstacles in his way, either. Slimes kept squeezing through the pines of the trees to get down to him, but it took them too long and Morton was faster than them. His vision was desaturating once again, though, and he saw Mr. Skits peering out at him around every few corners.
Morton's body went limp for a second as the ground shook and he heard several trees crumbling. He looked back for a millisecond to see that the King Slime had jumped forward toward him. At this point, Morton assumed it had spotted him, so he began trying to run away in a more zig-zag pattern to try and lose the beast.
His heart felt like a rock at Sr.'s anvil, being pounded repeatedly by his hammer. He felt his blood warm up like lava, coursing through his body as it had coursed through his favorite home. That had given way to the big-green-bug-beast, which had led to me and Sr.'s separation. If only we had stayed at the base that we had been at, with the drying-up lake. The summer might have been more difficult, but we wouldn't be there to be chased by the big-green-bug-beast when it emerged. Or better yet, we left that base and went to any of the others! I mean, I may not have found the tumbleweed with the yellow gem, and Sr. wouldn't probably get to the point of offering to venture beyond the mesa on my next birthday, but something else would've happened sooner or later that would've led to that anyways! And what's so important about one stupid yellow gem? I may not have met the Koopatrols, either, but Sr. and I would've learned about the shadow monsters—apparently, the "Nightmare Creatures"—together, we would've got some "shadow guts," and met some different Koopatrols, or maybe someone-s or somethings from the two armies in my dream. Heck, I'd probably still have the dream, and maybe Sr. could've told me what it meant!
WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE THAT ONE? Morton's thoughts screamed above all the others that just went through his mind.
The ground shook again, and Morton heard a strange, wet noise behind him. He knew it was the King Slime, and it was now right behind him.
Morton froze up. He was suddenly very scared. He remembered what the slimes had done to their prey, and then his mind traumatized him with the image of his body burning inside the King Slime, bits flaking off like that unfortunate Koopatrol who had been crushed by the tree when the King Slime came.
He spun around to face the King Slime. It towered over him, twenty feet tall and seeming even bigger this close; its body like a giant plate of Jell-O, like every other slime. Closer up now, Morton noticed little black and white blotches, like a froth of some kind, sprinkled about its body, along with the skeletal remains of past prey, and the gory bits of its very previous prey. The King Slime rippled before scrunching down, almost to the point that the unmoving crown on top was at eye-level for Morton, before it shot way up in the air. Slime balls dripped from the King Slime as it went up, up, and up, and then it came down, down, down over Morton. Everything around him darkened in the shadow of the slimy sovereign, and Morton thought fast. He ran as far as he could, but he couldn't run thirty feet in just a few seconds, but he almost got there. The moment he felt a sticky substance touching the tip of his three hairs, he rolled into his shell and began to spin.
It felt like a big rock just hit Morton in the head. Even still, his shell had absorbed much of the impact, but Morton knew that his shell wasn't built to take so much damage; the leaf-beast explosion, being dropped by the Dragonfly, and now this. A torrent of blue gel deluged through his head-hole, and it filled Morton's nostrils. He closed his eyes and mouth, though, but even still it was difficult to breathe. It felt like his nose was filled with thick snot, but it only slowly seeped up his nose as he was trying to rapidly exhale over and over through his nose.
He felt more gel and slime fill his arm-holes and leg-holes, and he tried to push his arms and legs out to somehow combat this, and he actually got them out, but it was a slow process because it was like trying to push through compact mud or something. His grass shirt began to break into smaller yet smaller pieces, and it drifted away. His knife floated away too!
Morton lost all sense of physical perception just then, with his eyes shut tight and his arms and legs and head surrounded by the King Slime's gel. He began to float around within the King Slime, turning and swirling like a rubber ducky in a bubble bath. Eventually, after a minute or two (the average time a Koopa could hold their breath due to their partial turtle-like nature and ancestry), Morton had to take a gasp for air. He could no longer breathe through his nose, and his mouth and throat had been filled with the taste of dish soap. Weirdly, he could still breathe, but it was quite difficult. It was more like furiously heaving than anything. He spat out what gel he could, but more just kept filling, so it didn't matter. He then felt his throat tighten, and that was because the gel had begun to collect on the insides of his throat.
A burning pain came from his throat as the gel started to burn away at his flesh, and he yelled, but it just sounded like a weird gurgle or something, though it did send out some gel and oxygen bubbles. His exposed arms and legs began to burn, too, but not as badly; the little openings in between his claws and scales, like a human's fingertips and skin, hurt with almost the same pain as his throat, though.
I've let the slime get inside me, he panicked, and it won't come back out until its burned holes through my body, and only then even more will get in, and eat me away! Morton loved his mind, but right at this moment, he very much hated it.
Speaking of his mind, his sanity was disappearing down the widening yet tightening gyre of thought, and whispers filled his head, providing something to hear outside his thoughts and nauseating slimy sounds from the King Slime itself. His vision once again began disorienting, and he knew that the pain from his throat was making his body react with panic, and he had opened his eyes. It was only a squint, but it felt like he had got stung in the pupil by a hornet. It was the worst pain he'd felt in his whole life—well, actually, physical pain. The worst mental pain had been when Sr. practically said Morton didn't really have a point in existing, and, well, being separated from Sr.
It seemed like Morton was in another world or something, or at least, that's what his vision showed him. It was like a giant blue bubble, with darker blue bubbles all around that were also, like, part of the bubble, but as Morton floated through them, they didn't feel different or act like bubbles. They were the weird blotches Morton had seen when the King Slime had landed right in front of him. He didn't know what they were—it was really just part of the texture of the King Slime's gel.
As Morton floated more, flapping his arms and legs and closing his eyes until his throat and claw-hole pain forced them open for a second, he spotted the edges of the King Slime's body. Beyond the weird bubbliness (that with the blotches, now somewhat resembled a paper painted sky-blue, and a jar of cobalt-blue paint had spilled over it, but the paint were watercolors so they merged), Morton saw the outside—evergreens drenched in slimes and gel; mud and grass flattened by the slimes once they fell from the trees; the tick and chair-legged Nightmare Creatures slinking in and out of the shadows that grew as night fell. Morton was worried that even if he lived for much longer, the whoosh-slash monster from the most pitch of darkness would come and kill him somehow.
Would, or could, it kill the King Slime? Does it attack everything or only things with low sanity? Or just me? Or was it a one-time occurrence? In fact, do slimes even really have minds, or consciousness at best, to have sanity? Is that why Nightmare Creatures leave them alone? Or do the Nightmares see them and just not care? Can slimes see them back? Do they work together, maybe?
It's probably just magic. The Dragonfly was probably part magic, and the yellow gem must be magic, and I was just never in the conditions to encounter Nightmares in the mesa, but nonetheless that all means that magic was present there. And clearly, this whole outside world is teeming with magic.
There may be a science to most things, but this world is undoubtedly full of magic, and I've only been out here for about a week.
If only Morton knew how right he was…
Something bumped against Morton's underbelly. Morton opened his eyes and then shut them again, the pain worse than ever. He felt himself be turned upside-down by the evermoving gel of the King Slime, and he opened his eyes and squinted just to see what had bumped into him.
It was the one Koopatrol who had been hiding in the bush! From what Morton could tell, the Koopatrol was in worse shape than he was, for when he had been dragged into the King Slime by one of the monster's appendages, some gel had gotten through the slits of his armor, and while it hadn't burned away at the metal, it had weakened the chainmail links and leather straps (burning away at the leather, actually), and the armor had become undetached, especially with all of the moving and jumping the King Slime was doing now. Now, most of the armor was scattered about the King Slime like the bones and half-digested bits of prey that had been there all along.
Morton could finally the Koopa Troopa under the armor—just your average green-shelled one. Morton had heard Koopa Troopas being thoroughly described, as well as being compared and contrasted, in Sr.'s tales of the outside—the most prominent creature Sr. had mentioned, in fact. Morton wasn't as amazed as when he had first seen the Koopatrols for they looked much more menacing, which meant equally more awesome, but seeing them in the flesh for the first time of many was still a sight, for sure. And it was a miracle it was in the flesh, because this poor Koopa had bloody streaks across his skin, and Morton could see that his tiny neck—which like most Koopa Troopas and the Mortons was sunk into their shoulders—was red and raw, for gel had also gotten into his throat as it had into Morton's and was now eating away at his throat in and out!
The Koopa reached his hand out to Morton, kicking his feet to try and propel himself up to Morton, even though that'd probably not do much good. Gel had filled up his shell, and thus he couldn't hide in there—it was too full.
Morton grabbed the Koopa's hand, trying to give him a smile or something, but that would look disturbing since his eyes were closed. Morton assumed that the Koopa just wanted to be safe and not die like this, and Morton kind of had the same goals right then.
Suddenly the King Slime's body rippled. A fiery glow flashed underneath them, and they both opened their eyes and looked down to see a flaming arrow that just broke into the King Slime. A small fireball was released from the arrow, and a bit of the King Slime evaporated. Just a bit, though, and then the arrow was extinguished and began to break apart. Two more flaming arrows, then a fourth. The King Slime hissed, smoke pouring from where the flaming arrows struck. Morton glanced at where the flaming projectiles were coming from and saw the remaining Koopatrols—Brad, Trevor, and the other one Morton needed to know the name of—firing the flaming arrows with their copper bows. The slimes of the slime rain were scared off by the flames, and also by the snarls that the Koopatrols emitted. Trevor actually shot at some of the slimes, though, and he even fired some into the pines of the trees, making a sort of fiery roof over them that fried any slimes that fell down.
"BRAD!" spat Morton, even though Brad couldn't hear him. Morton sounded like he was underwater, and more bubbling gel zoomed inside him.
More flaming arrows. The King Slime began to squish down, ready to jump.
"Koopa!" gurgled the Koopa. "Go up! Grab the crown!" he pointed up to the King Slime's crown.
Morton thought he understood and nodded. He pumped his legs, moving up like a frog in a pond. Because the King Slime was squished down, the crown sank into it just a little bit, and Morton was able to grab the bottom. The Koopa let go of Morton and grabbed onto the crown with both hands, and so Morton did too. They both did a sort of pull-up with the crown and were able to get up onto it, leaving the gelatinous body. The Koopa and Morton grabbed onto one of the big rubies and used it and little divots in the crown like a rock-climbing wall to get to the top.
They each took deep, wheezy breaths. They were free!
Morton looked around. It was a great view from up there; the King Slime was just taller than the evergreens, not counting the crown, and seeing all of the slimes stuck to the trees that covered the land as far as the eye could see like colorful ornaments was surely a sight.
"HOLD ON!" screamed the Koopa before coughing up some blood, staining some of the golden crown.
The King Slime sprang into the air, and Morton almost flew off right then and there. Luckily, all the gel that still covered Morton and the Koopa glued them to the crown. As the King Slime was coming down, Morton and the Koopa both saw a tall structure made of dark oak wood and cobblestone in the distance. Blocky gray men with crossbows and axes and other things were peeking out of the outpost, and some were coming for the King Slime.
After all, the King Slime had only landed where it had because it was trying to land where the most amount of prey was, and across all the land that was under the slime rain, the outpost was it.
Morton and the Koopa bobbed up and down from the shockwave as the King Slime landed, taking several trees with it. Morton was going to say something to the Koopa about the outpost, but then the Koopa pushed him, yelling "SHELL!"
As Morton flew several feet, he rolled up in his shell, but he couldn't all fit since some gel had gotten in there, and all the other things he'd collected were still there as well. His shell hit the side of the King Slime, and he bounced—the outside was a protective, bouncy layer, and the inside was sticky and acidic. Morton hit the ground and spun threw several slimes before hitting a tree and stopping. He got out of his shell, dizzy, and still hurting from the gel that was burning away inside his throat.
"Morton?!" said Brad. Morton turned around to see Brad fire a volley of flaming arrows at the King Slime before rushing over to him. "How are you alive?"
Morton shook his head and coughed. He opened his mouth and pointed at his throat, and Brad peeked down there before shutting Morton's mouth.
"We need to get you to Kamek, to clear that gunk out!"
"WHO'S KAMEK?" Morton croaked.
"King Bowser's most loyal comrade. His Magikoopa Advisor. Every Koopa King has one. As said, he's a magikoopa. He can cure that stuff; we can't."
"HUH?"
The Koopa that was with Morton bounced off the ground and slid towards them. His shell had hit the ground, so he had survived but was still in a more lethal state than Morton. Plus, his shell was now cracked, and gel was leaking out, albeit slowly.
"Roland!" cried Brad, helping him up. "You alright?"
"No…" coughed Roland. He then handed Morton his knife. "Take this. I got it as I was *cough cough* floating."
"MY KNIFE!" Morton took it. "THANK YOU. I THOUGHT IT WAS GONE."
"Oh, it was yours? I *choke* thought it was just some random *COUGH*!"
"Stop talking, both of you," Brad said sternly, "we gotta go!" He grabbed each of them by an arm and ran from the King Slime, who was beginning to slide backwards. It was getting smaller, Morton realized, as flaming arrow after flaming arrow struck it. Globs of gel began to drip from the King Slime, and then those globs merged with other ones to create full-sized blue slimes. The extra gel on the slimes then solidified into hard glass-like spikes on the slimes!
Morton, Roland, Brad, Trevor, and the other Koopa, who was apparently named Goldberg when Trevor shouted to him to get his butt moving, all ran from the King Slime and his spiked slimes. The Koopatrols occasionally fired a few shots of flaming arrows, but soon they were all out of ammo.
Morton gave Brad a look that said where-did-you-get-flaming-arrows?
Brad responded, "Gel's flammable. Goldberg always keeps flint handy for fires, and we put the fiery gel on our arrows. BOOM. Simple skill."
BUR-BUM-BURH-BLAAARR-ER-BUR-BRRAAGH!
The chilling sound sliced the air like a machete through hot butter. All the Koopas came short and turned to the sound. Even some of the slimes and King Slime turned to them, and from what Morton could see with his low sanity, so did the Nightmares.
BUR-BUM-BURH-BLAAARR-ER-BUR-BRRAAGH!
One of the warriors stood atop a treeless hill, with a crossbow and quiver of arrows slung over his shoulder, several magical accessories and leather pouches hanging from his black leather belt and its platinum buckle. He wore a dark cloak with black stripes and made of a fabric that was a merge of maroon and crimson. He had platinum shoulder plates as well, with coal-gray slacks and big brown boots, both with nails through them. His skin was pasty gray, and his head was rectangular with dark emerald eyes, bushy black eyebrows, a dark gray nose, and a banner banded to his head that stood up like a flag, depicting a face just like his except with diamond-blue eyes.
The Raid Captain blew into his raid horn once again.
BUR-BUM-BURH-BLAAARR-ER-BUR-BRRAAGH!
Forty warriors just like him in appearance except without the banner and having different accessories rushed down the hill. They were pillagers, a type of Illager.
Illagers, the bane of every creature to roam the lands.
BUR-BUM-BURH-BLAAARR-ER-BUR-BRRAAGH!
"Run," hissed Brad, and all of them streaked away, disappearing under the evergreens. Grunts and cries filled the air along with the harmony of arrows being fired and squelching from slimes being eviscerated. The ground shook as the King Slime bounced back and forth, trying to attack the Illagers and also not get hit.
Morton had a bunch of new questions now, but they would have to wait.
Thaddeus's POV:
Thaddeus the Raid Captain looked over his fellow Pillager comrades. Pillagers were the second most common Illager, the first being the Vindicators, light-armored axe-wielders, but Pillagers were better in his opinion. They had crossbows, which meant RANGE. In this world of multiverses, the Illagers had been the ones to invent crossbows, and no one really knows the secret to how they make them so expertly.
No one really knew much about the Illagers, to be honest. They had been there at the beginning of this new world's creation and had been hostile conquerors of everything, always. They would be viewed as just some powerful empire, which they were, but they were viewed as evil, too, because they knew a lot about magic, especially the darker side of it. They played with the shadows of the world, if you know what that means. Their practice of magic had separated them from the world, and even though the world is now full of magical creatures and wizards and items, the Illagers still remain outliers. It is said they look the way they do as a curse for their practice, and that they are now minions of darkness.
That last part is very true.
Thaddeus loaded two arrows into his crossbow. His crossbow had two "wings" on either side, one aqua and one yellow, and two arrows could be loaded and fired simultaneously. Ironically, Thaddeus called it the Butterfly Crossbow. It was because of the wings, but Thaddeus was the polar opposite of a butterfly. He was big, fierce, disrupting, and violent, and as such was a Raid Captain—and proud of it.
The two arrows destroyed two purple slimes, one arrow each, and a few copper coins and balls of gel flew from them. It was a common fact that slimes liked treasure and always would search for shinies like coins, holding them just as highly as prey. Same with things like zombies, and, well, Illagers, too.
Thaddeus scooped up the coins and thrust them into one of his belt pouches, grinning. His pouch was full of gold, silver, and copper coins, plus a few emeralds. Illagers preferred emeralds over coins, and so did Villagers, one of the more peaceful humanoids of the world—they were Illagers that weren't cursed, didn't play with dark magic, and sealed themselves in their houses when the sun set and came right out to trade and talk once the sun rose.
Pitiful little worms, they are, thought Thaddeus, for the emeralds in his pouch reminded him of his prey. He liked to hunt and raid Villager villages, as well as Koopa villages, Goomba villages, and practically every other village. The dark magic used by their ancestors had twisted them, and it was now Illager nature to raid and reap. Well, only specific Koopa villages. There were a number of Koopas on the Illagers' side, as were Goombas, but the Villagers also had Goombas and Koopas on their side. Illagers lead their forces, but Villagers were the ones protected by forces. Opposing Koopas and Goombas, like King Bowser Koopa himself, only really cared about Villagers due to their superior crafting, building, forging, etc. skills, and thus provided them shelter within their kingdom. The Koopa Kingdom. The kingdom that the Illagers and Koopas and Goombas on their side would keep raiding until they were the owners of the Koopa Kingdom. Their masters said so, and even the Illagers would do as their masters pleased. They knew that one would fall without a master, even if they were the most powerful army to ever plague the lands!
Thaddeus snapped out of his thoughts. He had to focus on slaying this particular King Slime before it got to the Pillager Outpost and consumed it.
The King Slime landed behind him. Thaddeus knew because of the VERY OBVIOUS vibrating of the ground he stood on, and because of the slimy noise it made as its appendages shot out to snatch him.
Thaddeus spun on his heel and fired two rounds of arrows from his Butterfly Crossbow. The first round struck the appendages coming at him, making them retract, and the second round knocked a glob of slime off it. The King Slime had reached half its size now, and it shrank even a little bit more as it sicced five spiked slimes on him.
Thaddeus blasted the spiked slimes to pieces within several seconds, then refilled his Butterfly Crossbow with…shining white arrows?
"Foolish lifeforms, 'em slimes," he scoffed.
The King Slime bounced towards him. Thaddeus took several steps back before grabbing a small glass vial with light-blue liquid inside and threw it at his chest. It shattered, and the liquid seeped into his clothing through his skin and flesh and bone. Little swirls and bubbles of the same color spiraled from him into the air, quickly dissipating, and Thaddeus felt a burst of energy. He took several steps back, but the Potion of Swiftness made him gain double the amount of ground.
"HAHA!" barked Thaddeus, and he fired his Butterfly Crossbow. The two glowing arrows shot through the air, leaving a trail of colorful dust and stars as they struck the King Slime. He loaded more of the arrows and fired them, tearing holes through the King Slime's body. All of the arrows flew out the other side and struck other slimes behind the King one, damaging or killing them.
"Behold," said Thaddeus, easily outrunning the King Slime as it hopped towards him, "some of da newest development in magic! The Jester's Arrow!" Thaddeus loaded more and kept shooting. All pierced the King Slime with ease and hit the slimes on the other side. When the King Slime released more spiked slimes, Thaddeus fired arrows through them, too, making three-slime-skewers with the magical arrows. The King Slime began to hop away, realizing its current target wasn't worth the struggle.
Thaddeus surveyed his surroundings. Only five of his forty fellow warriors had fallen, and most of the slimes had been cleared from the area. The slime-rainclouds were moving away from the thicket, the outpost, and the surrounding land, which brought another twisted grin to Thaddeus's face.
He blew the raid horn and then put it back on his belt. His comrades turned to him, loading their crossbows.
"The King Slime!" Thaddeus boomed, firing more Jester's Arrows at it. The Pillagers raised their crossbows in unison and shouted before charging toward the King Slime.
Thaddeus slung his Butterfly Crossbow over his shoulder before raising a cupped hand in the air. He used his other hand to draw an invisible ring around his cupped hand. The Illager signal to surround and overpower the enemy.
The Pillagers formed a circle around the King Slime and fired. The arrows all struck the King Slime at once, and then Thaddeus's Jester's Arrows landed. The King Slime sent out appendages and spiked slimes, but the Pillagers finished them with even more arrows. The Pillagers kept firing arrow after arrow, and the King Slime got smaller and smaller. Its crown slid off one side of the King Slime, landing vertically on the ground. It rolled a bit like a standing-up hula-hoop before falling to the side with a thump.
Thaddeus chuckled as he eyed the free rubies and gold that lay before him. He looked back at the King Slime to see it evaporate into the ground, leaving behind a cloud of blue mist and all the arrows that were stuck in it.
"Where's the loot?" one of the Pillagers whined.
The King Slime rematerialized above the Pillager next to Thaddeus and slammed down on him. Thaddeus side-hopped and fired more Jester's Arrows at the little King Slime. A new, smaller crown had appeared on the King Slime, and it turned and bounded towards Thaddeus, knocking the Pillager inside him all about.
The pursuit only lasted a second as all the Pillagers fired arrows at the King Slime when it began the chase, and it exploded into a wave of blue gel and coins.
"There's the loot," said the complaining Pillager.
In the center of the gel and coins was the Pillager who had been trapped inside. He coughed and struggled to get up, but one of the Pillagers helped him stand. Around the Pillager was also an assortment of bones, random metal chunks, and a big golden saddle that glimmered purple.
"An enchanted Slimy Saddle," Thaddeus said with dark glee. "Pretty rare. 'Specially with the enchantment."
"Obviously," said one of the Pillagers as he marched to the Slimy Saddle and picked it up. It was quite heavy, so another Pillager assisted him in carrying the prize.
Thaddeus motioned to the metal parts, and one of his comrades picked up the gel, bones, and metal chunks and shoved them in their pouches. Thaddeus and the others finally collected their fair share of coins, and a cheer arose among the Illagers.
Thaddeus opened his mouth to speak, but he was interrupted by the Pillager who got caught in the King Slime.
"Help…" he groaned, trying to peel some gel off his head. It felt like yanking tape off bare skin. Like Morton and Roland, the Pillager also had red marks where the gel had eaten some of him, and the stuff was also in his ears, nose, mouth, and even eyes!
"You know you ain't notable enough to receive da expensive medical procedure to remove that gel, right, peasant?" snapped Thaddeus, fitting regular arrows into his crossbow. He didn't have the need to use Jester's Arrows anytime soon, but he always wanted to have his ammo ready. He slung his Butterfly Crossbow over his shoulder again.
The Pillager with the gel problem nodded slowly. "But…"
"But what?" Thaddeus snorted. "You get slime down ya trap? You ain't a Raid Captain, Evoker, Illusioner, any other high-ranking Illager…you're not special. I will arrange for a painkiller, though," he said.
The Pillager lifted his eyebrows and stretched his mouth into a small smile. He cracked his knuckles and dipped his head forward, the standard Illager greeting pose for a higher-ranking member.
"Painkiller?" asked a Pillager. He was missing an eye and had a bulkier, metal crossbow—the Illagers called the crossbow type the "heavy crossbow." Only rewarded by Pillagers who have killed tough creatures or have served for at least two years. This one had done both. "Da man is gonna die some slow death wit' da gel in 'is stomach!"
"Good point, Vincent," Thaddeus said with a nod. He had a deep respect for Vincent. The loyal Pillager had served under Thaddeus for years and was in fact two years older than Thaddeus, but Vincent had turned down the opportunity as a Raid Captain as he knew he, well, wasn't the best leader and was adamant about rushing in to spill blood. He knew it wouldn't be strategic for the Illagers to have such a Raid Captain, and he knew the best Raid Captain is one who calculates the best time to strike, so he passed the offer to Thaddeus, who had similar experience as him but was more thoughtful.
"Illagers have survived slime digestion," a Pillager pointed out. Even still, he didn't seem so sure about the fact.
"Yes…" Thaddeus thought aloud.
"SO?" blurted the gelled Illager in an annoyed voice.
"Alright, I'll do it da fast way," Thaddeus grumbled, "here's your painkiller." He grabbed his Butterfly Crossbow and fired two arrows into the Pillager. He coughed and crumpled to the ground.
The surrounding Pillagers looked from the dead one, to Vincent, and then to Thaddeus. Some even flinched.
"Mug…" one whispered to no one in particular.
"Oh, was Mug his name?" said Thaddeus with a smirk. He reloaded his Butterfly Crossbow and then marched away in the direction of the outpost. "Fitting for a worm like him; and don't bother bringing him, either. The only thing I want from him is his loot!"
A Pillager ran forward and took Mug's pouches off Mug's belt and fitted them on his own, passing one to Thaddeus.
Vincent jerked his crossbow at Thaddeus, and the Pillagers formed a half-circle around the Raid Captain. The ones on the edge got out their crossbows and looked around for threats. None. The slimes were all dead—their dirty work—and the slime rain had passed.
"Hurry up," called Vincent to the bearers of the Slimy Saddle. "You'd better ain't be complaining like Mug, either! Bwah!"
Morton's POV:
"I think we're safe for now," huffed Brad, sitting down on a fallen log. He patted the space next to him, and Morton sat down there. Trevor and Goldberg unsheathed their weapons and searched for threats. Roland sat on the ground and laid back against a big rock.
"YOU DOING BETTER, ROLAND?" Morton asked the suffering Koopa. He was technically still a Koopatrol, but his gear was gone, and he was still having blazing pain from the gel inside him.
"Maaaybe?" he said, then coughed.
"MAAAYBE NOT…"
Roland chuckled, then coughed again.
The stretching of bowstrings filled the air, and Morton and the Koopatrols all looked behind them to see thirty-four Pillagers before them, crossbows aimed. The lead one wore a banner of an Illager face on his head. He cupped one hand and then traced a line around it with his other hand. His fellow Pillagers quickly circled around Morton and the Koopatrols, glaring. Morton noticed one was missing an eye, and two hadn't come into the circle because they were carrying a large golden saddle.
"Well well well, to what do I owe the pleasure?" said the banner Pillager. "I am Thaddeus, an Illager Raid Captain." He tapped his strange, multicolored crossbow. "I see that you're our enemies, traveling on 'ur territory. You know what that means, yeh? We just obliterated some particular ones—King Slime and some others."
"WHAT IS AN ILLAGER RAID CAPTAIN?" said Morton. He was intimidated by them all, but he wanted to know who these new enemies were.
"A captain of the Illagers," grunted the one-eyed Pillager. "We're Illagers, a type called Pillagers. These Koopas prob' told ya that we're da baddies, hm? Well, we may be so, but we don't wanna harm ya, brown Koopa."
Brown!… "THEY TOLD ME NUTHIN' 'BOUT YOU ILLAGERS," Morton replied. "AND—"
"Morton!" whispered Brad loudly.
"That 'is da name?" said the one-eyed Pillager. "Moron?"
"MORTON," hissed Morton.
The one-eye chuckled and hoisted his heavy crossbow over his shoulder.
"Vincent," said the banner Pillager; Thaddeus. "Whaddya means, we don't wanna harm the weird Koopa?"
"Ain't it obvious, Thaddeus?" said Vincent, the one-eye. "He not be like most Koopas. Look at his dark features. Brown scales, blackish shell…and 'is contrasting ones. Bright white head 'n' claws. He be funky!"
Thaddeus nodded slowly. "But what are ya—"
"He talks weirdly. He's kinda big; looks a bit like King Bowser, and those Koopalings that he has collected. I think he one of 'em. Most of all, though: the dark star over his left eye!"
"AGAIN WITH THE KOOPALINGS!" Morton said. "FIRST THE MAN IN MY DREAM, THEN BRAD"—he gestured to the Koopatrol—"NOW YOU, VINCENT. BRAD SAID THINGS ABOUT THE PROPHECY…"
"And you're done talking!" shouted Trevor, elbowing Morton.
"Where did you find this Koopa?" asked a Pillager. "You better not lie."
The Koopatrols exchanged glances. Eventually Goldberg said, "In the forest. Alone. We don't know almost anything about him!"
Thaddeus and some others squinted suspiciously at them.
"I CAN EXPLAIN ABOUT MYSELF," Morton said, looking away from the Koopatrols.
"Later," Thaddeus said.
"THEN EXPLAIN MORE 'BOUT YOURSELVES INSTEAD!" Morton yelled.
"Oh, we can explain," Thaddeus said in an oily voice. "But first, all ya are coming to the outpost. The Illager outpost."
"There's an outpost nearby?" murmured Brad.
Roland and Morton exchanged nervous glances. That was what they had seen on top of the King Slime! The structure of dark oak wood and cobblestone!"
"C'mon. Get up. Take your time," Thaddeus said through gritted teeth. He was smiling, and smiling a very chilling smile at that.
Vincent took out some rope from a pouch and bound Morton's hands behind his back, just under his bottom shell spike. Other Pillagers did the same with the rest: Brad, Trevor, Goldberg, and Roland.
Thaddeus took the lead, and they formed a half-circle around the Raid Captain, with the Koopatrols and Morton positioned around Thaddeus.
Thaddeus blew his horn, and they set off.
Today is the day that the Illagers have won, he thought, grinning malevolently. We have one of the Koopalings—he must be one. We only need one to die, and The Prophecy falls apart. This "Morton" doesn't need to die, though…that dark star on his face…he is the one for the master!
New references to games in this chapter:
57. The floating eyeballs Morton sees from a distance at night are Terraria's Demon Eyes
58. The uses Morton thinks of for common items are ones from Minecraft and Don't Starve, as well as just general real-life uses
59. The road Morton encounters is made of Minecraft's Grass Path, but it is set up in a way like Don't Starve's Road Set Pieces
60. The particular slimes in this chapter are from Terraria; the slime rain, King Slime, Slimy Saddle, blue Gel, and Jester's Arrows are all from it, too, as well as the term "sovereign" describing a powerful slime from Terraria, though in the case of the actual game it was describing a Queen Slime
61. The tick-like Nightmare Creature is called the Crawling Horror, and is from Don't Starve; so is the Midsummer Carnival and the cooked green caps; the green caps tasting salty is a reference to Maxwell's quote about them in Don't Starve
62. Koopatrols, King Bowser, Kamek, and Koopa Troopas are, once again, from Mario; the particular iron swords they used are from Minecraft, while the spears are Knight's Halberds and longswords are Knight's Claymores, both from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
63. The copper bows the Koopatrols use are from Terraria; the particular flaming arrows are from Terraria, and gel being flammable in that game also translates to this fanfiction
64. Illagers, Pillagers, Raid Captains, Evokers, Illusioners, Illager Banners (also called Ominous Banners), their raid horns and sounds, Illager Outposts, and the particular crossbows and arrows used by them are all from Minecraft
65. The heavy crossbow and Butterfly Crossbow are from Minecraft: Dungeons; the enchantment effect on the Slimy Saddle is an enchantment from the game as well, being the Cowardice enchantment
66. The blue potion Thaddeus uses is a Splash Potion of Swiftness from Minecraft, same with the Koopatrols' steak; Brad's white-and-blue "raid horn" is the Wind Horn from Minecraft: Dungeons